


Three Thousand Years of Solitude

by lucy_wf



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen, Millenium Puzzle, My First Work in This Fandom, Prequel, Yu-Gi-Oh Season Zero, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 16:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14241333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucy_wf/pseuds/lucy_wf
Summary: "It was so dark.All around him, stretching as far as the eye could see; unending shadows, liquid black in every direction.No movement, no sound, no life. Just the eerily quiet void."My interpretation of how Atem spent the 3000 years between his death and Yugi solving the Puzzle (including Sugoroku finding the box in his tomb).





	Three Thousand Years of Solitude

**Author's Note:**

> i think a lot about all that time atem spent trapped in the shattered puzzle. it's really frightening to imagine someone being all alone for three THOUSAND years. i mean, people go crazy after spending just a few decades on their own. if atem was at least semi-conscious during all that time, it's no wonder he was kiiiind of crazy when yugi finally freed him. you know what i'm talking about. *glances at season 0 and the first 7 volumes of the manga* not to mention that all that power probably got to his head after being helpless for so long.
> 
> so, this fic was an attempt to get that into words, because it's something i really think can't be overlooked. and we don't talk about sugoroku finding the puzzle often enough, haha.
> 
> (please keep in mind that this is a prequel to either season 0 or the manga, because the first episode of duel monsters sucks and really doesn't explain anything about what happened before and after yugi solved the puzzle. also, in DM they never show atem playing shadow games and just generally being completely ruthless towards anyone who hurts yugi - which is an important part of this fic.)

It was so dark.

All around him, stretching as far as the eye could see; unending shadows, liquid black in every direction.

No movement, no sound, no life. Just the eerily quiet void.

He couldn’t see or feel his own body. Did he even have one? Was he just a conscience drifting through the shadows? It didn’t really make any difference. A body wouldn’t be of much use for him. There was nothing to touch, or see, or hear, or taste.

How long had he been there? Time seemed to stretch into infinity in that place.  He could have sworn that  _centuries_  had gone by. But there was no way to tell for certain. 

In any case, it had apparently been long enough for him to forget where he'd even come from. He couldn't remember anything. Not even his name. The pitch-black void was all he knew. Perhaps he'd always been there. Perhaps not. What did it even matter? He was stuck there, floating in the abyss, and for all he knew that would never change.

The worst of it was that he was all alone in the dark, drowning in it, in his own solitude, with no possible escape. Dormant and numb as he felt, he was overwhelmed by his desire to have someone,  _anyone_ , to keep him company. He didn't even know where that need came from, and yet it made him feel a crushing, unbearable loneliness, so intense it was suffocating.

Time dragged on - or maybe it had stopped completely. How could he know? Nothing ever changed in that realm of shadows...

Or did it?

Suddenly, he wasn't in the void anymore. He was... where was he? This place was dark too - not nearly as much as his prison, of course - with stone walls covered in painted drawings, worn out by the passage of time. It felt ancient, its atmosphere heavy and oppressing, and yet, for some strange reason, it felt familiar too,  _comforting_ , even. He didn't ponder this for long, though; his attention was promptly driven somewhere else. To the floor, to be exact. A narrow passage, above a seemingly bottomless pit.  

And right there, right in front of him, there was a  _person_. A man, wearing strange clothes, his body dangling in the abyss. He was holding on for dear life, a single hand grasping the edge of the stone path; trying not to fall to his certain death. By the looks of things, though, it wouldn't be long before he did.

He was still trying to make sense out of the situation when the man tilted his head enough for him to see his face, strained with effort and fear. Like the room itself, something about it was vaguely familiar, as if-

_Siamun!_

The word popped into his mind, and he somehow recognised it as a name - but whose? The man's? But how could he know his name, if he'd never even seen him before?

As he stared at the man’s – _Siamun’s?_ – face, something else came into his mind. A light of hope.

_He’s… someone I’ve been waiting for. Someone who’ll make it possible for me to get out of my prison._

Where had that thought even come from? Was it just a vain hope, born from his desperation?

No. Somehow, he was certain. This man was his friend, and his way to freedom.

He knelt down, vaguely acknowledging the flutter of a cape behind him, the chime of gold on his wrists and ankles, the weight of a heavy ornament on his head. None of that mattered; he had to save Siamun before it was too late.

He outstretched his hand towards the wide-eyed man, his mouth agape in shock.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Siamun.” He surprised himself by the verbalisation of his own thoughts; it was a wonder he still knew how to speak after so much time of silence. Siamun fainted as he pulled him up into safety; probably because of the wound on his back he just then noticed. It looked very recent: in fact, it was still bleeding profusely. He let his gaze wander around the room, trying to find something that would help stop the bleeding, but he was already feeling himself being pulled back into the void. He tried to fight it, but to no avail.

As the world around him got darker and darker, his eyes fell upon a golden box on a pedestal, and he instinctively knew that inside laid the key to his freedom. Words flashed in his head.

_The Puzzle. Siamun will take it to the one who can solve it. And then, I will be freed._

He tried to hold on to his thoughts, tried to grasp their meaning, but a moment later the room fully vanished, and with it, the box. He was back in his private little hell.

...

It was so dark.

Everything was the same. 

Could he even trust that faint hope, that promise of escape he had felt?

No… It had been nothing more than wishful thinking, had it?

He’d probably imagined it all. His mind, desperate and broken, trying to come up with some fantasy of freedom.

He was still stuck in that void. And there he would stay.

Alone, in the dark…

It felt even worse, now that he’d had some vague hope of escaping. He closed his eyes – or pretended to, at least – wishing for something, anything that could rekindle that hope.

Time dragged on, and on, and on…

And then, out of nothing, with no previous warning whatsoever.

_Light._

It was so bright; searing across the void, ripping it apart, banishing the shadows. It was too much, too intense, and yet he welcomed it. He would much rather burn away in this light than keep drowning in darkness. _Perhaps,_ he mused, _someone has finally taken pity on me, and is granting me an end to this torment._

At last, freedom. Maybe that strange vision he’d had – _it felt like it had been so long ago, and at the same time it felt like no time had passed at all_ – had been real after all, and now its promise was finally coming true. He sighed in relief, feeling himself being torn apart with the shadows.   

And then relief gave way to pain, and he could feel his body now, and it hurt – _why did it hurt so much? –_ like it was getting ripped from the inside, the light that had been so kind and warm now scorching him mercilessly, _he couldn’t take it-_

He watched helplessly as a succession of images started flashing before him. All of them had something in common… a boy, a boy with colourful hair and wide purple eyes… a boy that looked so _familiar…_

_The Puzzle. Siamun. The one who could solve it._

_A boy…_

_Yugi._  

Just like that, the knowledge was right there in his mind. Just like that, he knew so much about the boy, like he’d known him his whole life. His name was Yugi. He’d solved the Puzzle. He’d freed him.  

As quickly as it had started, everything stopped. The light, the pain, the images. Quiet again. Was he back in the void…? No. He could _feel,_ he felt his lungs burning, he needed to breathe!

He opened his eyes and gasped for air. He was sitting at a desk, in a room – no, in _Yugi’s_ room – the finished Puzzle in his hands. He could feel his body, could feel the chair, his elbows on the desk, his bare feet on the floor. He was… was he _alive?_ Finally, at long last, free from that infernal darkness?

It… seemed so… but this body wasn’t his, was it? It was the boy’s… it was Yugi’s. He still didn’t know who he was, where he’d come from, what had happened to him.

But it didn’t matter anymore. His world was no longer empty. He was out of his prison, and he had a purpose. Nothing was more important than this boy who’d saved him.

And he could sense that Yugi had been hurt. Someone… a bully. Ushio.

He felt a quiet rage simmer deep in his soul. No one, _no one,_ would hurt Yugi ever again.

There was something else welling up inside him. _Power._ Like the light had, it burned his insides, but it was different. Not painful, but so _intense_. It was like the shadows that had surrounded him for so long were now inhabiting his body, filling his mind and soul, threatening to overflow at any moment. He could feel the mark of his power in his forehead, a copy of the eye staring back at him from the centre of the Puzzle. It burned like he’d been branded with a red-hot iron, but he welcomed the pain. It was the proof of his strength.

He felt dizzy, overwhelmed. After so long – _an eternity_ – of feeling helpless and impotent, he was in control. He could finally take out all his anger, all the pain he’d endured. All that time when he’d wondered just what he had done to deserve his punishment, despairing at his inability to do anything about it. What kind of twisted entity had condemned him to such suffering, deemed it appropriate for some crime he didn’t even know he’d committed?

But now… with all this power… _he_ would be the one serving justice. An avenging shadow, able to punish whoever he wanted. The thought was so delightful he almost burst into laughter.  

Yes. He was powerful. And he had an objective.

He might not know his own identity. But it didn’t matter. He knew he owed everything to this boy.  

He would protect him.

A smirk curved his borrowed lips. _Time for a game._

 

This Ushio… he’d _deeply_ regret what he had done.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank for reading! i hope you liked this silly story. 
> 
> i'm so glad i finally finished a yu-gi-oh fic. i'm writing several at the moment, actually, so you can expect more in the future! hopefully!
> 
> feedback is very appreciated~


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